Five Clackamas County schools improve federal AYP ratings

View full sizeRANDY RASMUSSEN/THE OREGONIANGardiner Middle School Principal Chris Mills stood with students in the hall during class this spring. The Oregon City middle school was one of 26 Clackamas County schools that did not meet federal Adequate Yearly Progress ratings, though the school had progress in several testing areas.

Five Clackamas County schools met federal benchmarks after failing to make the grade last year, according to data released this week by the Oregon Department of Education.

Seventy-nine schools in the county -- about 75 percent -- met "adequate yearly progress," or AYP, standards under the No Child Left Behind law this year.

The federal legislation, which places sanctions on chronically low-performing schools that receive federal Title I funding, designates schools that meet or do not meet AYP largely by the percentage of students passing reading and math exams.

The standards also take into account progress within subgroups such as special education, English Language Learner, minority and economically disadvantaged students. The scores in those subgroups -- particularly English Language Learner and special education -- often lead to schools' failing grades. Attendance, the number of students taking the tests and graduation rates are also factors.

This year, 26 Clackamas County schools did not meet AYP, seven of them comprehensive high schools with larger and more diverse populations. An additional 12 schools were not rated.

In most of those schools that managed to improve their rating this year, educators have pointed to intervention classes and collaborative teaching teams as big factors in their progress.

Ackerman Principal Joel Sebastian said the district recently implemented late starts for weekly collaborative sessions among teachers. Department teams created assessments and later used the results to target lessons in their individual classes at Ackerman, which improved its special education passing rates in both reading and math this year.

"Our main difference between last year's school year and prior years is that we're totally focused on minute-by-minute quality teacher instruction based on student data," Sebastian said.

Rowe Middle School has also taken advantage of those learning communities, and the benefits are finally starting to show, according to Principal Larry Becker.

"We're actually getting teachers to observe each other," Becker said. "That builds a sense of community among the adults, and that transfers to the kids."

At Estacada High, a high school with about 700 students, Principal Scott Sullivan said more teacher stability in the special education department and intervention classes helped bump up passing rates for special education students.

But Sullivan knows the classes were no quick fix for the comprehensive school, which has one of the lowest graduation rates in Clackamas County and only has 24 percent of its special education students passing the reading exams.

"It has taken years to get there, and we've got a long way to go," he said.

The schools that recently achieved a passing status must meet AYP again next year to officially get off the state's "troubled" list.

Gladstone High School is one of those "turned around" schools that got off the list, having met AYP for the second year in a row even after the percentage of overall students passing exams declined this year in both reading and math.

Because the state must use additional data to achieve ratings for subgroups in smaller schools, the 729-student school made the grade, even though 40 percent fewer of its special education students passed the reading exams this year than last.

While the majority of Clackamas County schools will be celebrating their ratings this year, the annual designations will be met with frustration by those who feel their schools are narrowly missing the mark.

Oregon City'sGardiner Middle School met AYP two years ago, but the passing rates in both reading and math for special education students dropped more than 15 percent the following year.

This year, the school gained in those same areas by more than 7 percent. But coupled with low attendance in the same subgroup, the improvements weren't enough to meet AYP this year.

"It was so frustrating for us because we worked our tails off to meet AYP academically," said principal Chris Mills.

Though Mills laments the unmet rating, he said the AYP reports are also instrumental in showing what schools are doing right.

"When you're looking at the data, you really have to look at the overall picture of what your school is doing," Mills said. "There is a lot of data in that report that is extremely positive, and we're also trying to concentrate and focus on that."